Aromatic compositions and process of treating lactone material to prepare them



Patented Oct. 23, 1951 AROMATIC COMPOSITIONS AND H PROCESS OF TREATING LAOTONE MATERIAL To PREPARE THEM John C. Hillyer and James T. Edmonds, Bartlesville, kla., assignors to Phillips Petroleum Company, a corporation of Delaware No Drawing. Application November 21, 1949, Serial No. 128,676

7 Claims.

This invention relates to the manufacture of a valuable chemical intermediate. In one embodiment this invention relates to the utilization of a condensate of furfural, water and 1,3-butadiene in the manufacture of a chemical intermediate containing an aromatic ring and a single side chain. In still another embodiment this invention relates to the utilization of a by-product material of an extractive distillation process employing furfural, in the manufacture of a new and novel composition.

An object of this invention is to and novel composition.

Another object is to provide a process for the manufacture of a new and novel composition.

Another object is to provide for the manufac ture of a composition containing an aromatic ring and a single side chain, from a selected lactone.

Another object is to provide for the manufacture of a composition containing an aromatic ring and a single side chain from a by-product material of an extractive distillation employing furfural as a selective solvent in the recovery of butadiene from a butadiene-butene hydrocarbon mixture.

Other objects will be apparent to one skilled in the art from the accompanying discussion and disclosure.

In accordance with one embodiment of this invention a new composition containing an aromatic ring and a single side chain and having special utility as an odorizing agent and chemical intermediate, is produced from furfural, butadiene and water by first condensing these three reactants to form a lactone, and then thermally treating the lactone so produced, in the presence of palladium as a catalyst, under specified conversion conditions of time and temperature. In the condensation reaction above referred to, one molecule each of butadiene, water and furfural react together to form a lactone having the empirical formula Col-11203, the resulting condensation reaction product being a solid crystal material which will be discussed in more detail hereafter.

The new composition of our invention contains an aromatic ring and a single side chain; it is insoluble in water, and soluble in ethanol, acetone and aqueous alkali, the latter solubility definitely indicating it to be acidic; it has a density, D25 of 1.152, and a refractive index, N of 1.530.

Our composition has an odor resembling that of hyacinths, and can be especially applied as an odorizing agent, being particularly useful in the provide a new 2 perfume industry .and in the manufacture ofartificially odorized products.

The aromatic structure of our composition, together with its single side-chain, makes it especially valuable as a chemical intermediate in var-, ious chemical syntheses.

In a preferred embodiment, we conduct the process of our invention by admixing the lactone; with a palladium-on-activated-charcoal catalyst... and heating the resulting reaction admixture to a, temperature in the range of from 300 to 450 F. for a time within the limits of from 0.5 to 5 hours. The amount of palladium-on-charcoal catalyst; employed is generally from 5-20 per cent based on the Weight of the resulting reaction admixture, and it contains preferably from 1 to 20 per cent. by Weight of palladium.

The palladium catalyst can be employed without being supported on charcoal, when desired, and in this case it is employed in a proportion within the range of about 0.05 to 4.0 percent based on the Weight of the total reaction mixture.

Generally we have prepared the lactone start ing material above referred to by the interaction of butadiene, furfural, and water. Thislactone material is a condensation product of butadiene, water, and furfural. A preferred procedure for the preparation of this lactone material is illustrated with a reaction system comprising fur,-. fural and from 1-50 per cent water, and 3-50 per cent butadiene, based on the weight of fur-v fural. The reactant materials for such asystem are charged to an autoclave and maintained at a temperature generally within the range of from about 200-300 F. for a reaction time from about 5 to about hours. Unchanged reactants and any butadiene polymer are removed from the resulting reaction product and the: higher boiling portion is fractionated under re.- duced pressure, i. e., preferably below'5 mm.-of mercury, to recover the lactone starting material of our invention.

Higher temperatures, i. e., above about 300 F., accelerate undesirable secondary condensations during the lactone preparation step, above described, to an extent that they generally should be avoided. While a good quality lactone product can be obtained at relatively low temperature, operations below about F. usually require substantially extended time. Pressures are, in general, not critical, and while efiective conversion is usually obtained at the pressures nor mally developed atthe operating temperature, they may be varied to any desired level such as by admission of nitrogen or other inert gas. It

is preferred to have the furfural-butadiene-water reactants present in the reaction zone primarily in liquid phase. Distillation of the residual lactone-containing product under reduced pressure conditions belowj about 5., mmiof] mercury absog lute, is preferred, since substantiallosses through secondary condensations, pyrolytic decomposition, and the like, usually result from the higher" temperatures required whenemployin hfiZactionv ation at higher distillation pressur' 'j', particularly a pressure as high as 1 atmosphere.

The lactone starting material can be obtained as a by-product of an extractivedistillation process involving the use of furfuralasaselective solvent in the separation of butadiene from a'buta'dieriebutene hydrocarbon mixture yn dergoing fractional distillation in a distillation column In, such a process the butadiene-butene stream contacted with furfural generally containing'froiri 4-6 per cent water. parts of? the' extractive distillation system range up to about 325 F.,'and the total contact time of butadiene, water; and furiuralini the extractive distillation columniis sufliciently long" to' provide for some appreciable side reaction, orcondensation, of furfural with water a'hd'fbutadi'en; and the concomitant formationiof some lactone. byproduct. Themagnitude ofsuchextra'ctive' distillatio'n" operations i'slsuch that large volumes" of furfuralare' incoristant circulation in the system, a'iid'thus even alow conversion'of furfuralto the lacto'n'e provides larger. amounts of the' lactone product that can be utilized as a starting material in'the process of our invention. i

In" the separation of butadiene fromia butane stream in accordance with'the' extractive distillation procedure above referred to;it'is generally customary to divert a small proportion;- usually about 1 or 2 per cent of the circulating furfural stream","to a furfural rerun system, generally a steam or vacuum re-distillation system, for the purpose of removing" by product furfural' polymers. Insuch a rerunsystem, thefurfurahbutadiene-water: reaction product is separated from thefu'rfuraL'as a part of a tarry bottoms product," containing large amounts of resinous furfural polymer together with certain aldehydic products of furfural-bu'tadiene'reaction; and the lact'one' condensate thatw'e utilize as a" starting Temperatures in various material'in'the'practice'of our invention? Sepa' ration'o'f this latter lacton'e materialfrom the tar can be'efiect'ed by a high vacuum distillation; generally at about 1 mm." pressura or. less; while employing a kettle temperature preferably inithe range of from150-250" The'la'ctoneicon'den sate fraction" obtainedin this manner is freefroin furfu'ra'l' polymer and" from atleast' a major proportion of aldehyde" by-pro'duct, and is' generally at least partially crystalliney Steam distillation, when used in theiremoval of tar from the furfu'ral" side stream, .pr'ovi'des large amounts of water conde'risate;:..which collect' with the bottoms. product. The aqueous phase thus formed carries in'soluti'on a largej'proportion of theilactone by-product, which can be recovered by distillation. It. is a feature of our invention thatitj is unnecessary to utilize, the lactonarleactantiina high ta oinmiim; hu .e iminat nenthec t or filial; purificat on. th t. we. quir d- ,Ylec evef uud h t. can. se crude emm -contai n imciiqurep ersda ar d act. of onde sat n ib t d'en ;w ter. and in:

d wi re a i e.. gnq fli e s me al ady. Q QH $Qu Q L -QWFl-ifi 19 reaction in an extractive distillat'on method of statistician-w permit their F 4 the type already discussed. This feature is particularly advantageous when utilizing the byproduct material obtained from the furfural purification step already described. The tarry phase from the extractive distillation process, when distilled under reduced pressure, yields the lactone product together with some aldehydic materials, and these products can be readily separated. to isolate the lactone in any desired purity. However, since the aldehydic by-product materialsjpres'entin such a lactone-containing fracnot do not enter into the reaction of our invention, and since they do not affect the reaction it'is advantageous, from an economics presence, thereby eliminating purification costs.

,Bcovery of alactone-containing fraction from the steamcondensate, when steam distillation is employed in the furfural rerun step, may be effected by evaporation of. the water, and the residu'al productv may be utilized as ourstarting material. vHowever, when desired, the residual productir'oim such steam-condensate distillation may be further purified by meansof solvent extraction, with a selective solvent suchras acetone for example, t0, removethe lactone product in any desired degreeiof. puri Our inv nt n is: illu t ted by, h iol ow n x les. .T hl lrreactant nthe r p op t ons. and 0the1.. p Q in r dien a epresen edi s; being typical and should not be construed to limit the invention unduly.

Example? re ly st amdi t led urtural n ainin fi e per cent by weight of water was charged to a stee rsa tieer e slf;fi ment 3,-but di n was iqd to iv a qe a qppit re? centin the reacti m xture; The composition of the charge material was and ared' viscous liquid; The crystals whichap peared in this fraction had melting point (crude) of 245 F..to'250 F.;1a"me1tin'g pointafter crystallization of 276? F. and'aiaciditycf 020 per cent; an aldehyde content of..'.0.0 per cent, and a molecular weight of about; 189; They were insoluble in petane and soluble in acetoneg water, benzene, methanol, cyclohexane and carbon disulndek In t e nr par i npfla e, uant esof ea n d cti om butas ienawa enand.

fural; n; acc rdap nwith th .pte b 9 o ht "or this material 15011- ing at 260-290 F. at 0.5 mm. wasredistilled at 0.5 mm. in a packed, silvered column. Approx-i mately 1 part of the light reaction product was separated followed by 2 parts of a white crystalline solid. The remaining overhead product was a heavy oil. The residue was transferred toa very small flask, but no further crystalline products. could be distilled and no crystals separated from the oily overhead material.

The crystalline material was found, to melt at 267-698 F. It had a neutralization equivalent of 192. An initial determination of the molecular weight, determined in benzene by the freezing point, was 180, though difliculty was experienced with low solubility. Determination by the East camphor method gave a value of 158. The material is soluble in water, alcohol, and dilute sodium hydroxidesolution. Preliminary carbon and hydogen analyses gave C, 64.18 per cent; H, 7.38 per cent; and 0, by difference 28.44 per cent. The neutralization equivalent indicates the presence of one potential carboxyl group per molecule.

Further experimental Work, not related here-- in in detail, established the empirical formulaof this crystalline product to be C9H1203.

Example II Fifty parts by weight of furfural was agitated in a closed reactor with ten parts by weight of butadiene and five parts of water for 100 hours at about 300 F., air being expelled from the reactor by evaporation of a small excess of butadiene included in the charge. Pressure during the reaction period was about 350 p. s. i. g. At the end of the time, pressure was released and unreacted butadiene allowed to evaporate. The reaction mixture was subjected to distillation under reduced pressure. The first components removed were water and 4-vinyl-1-cyclohexene. The bulk of the distillate was unreacted furfural. When the residue was reduced to a fairly small volume, 2,3,4,5 bis(A2-butenylene) -tetrahydrofuran, resulting from they reaction of furfural with butadiene alone, distilled at about 235.F., the pressure for this part of the distillation being reduced to about 1 mm. Hg. A reddish yellow oil was then distilled, forming a semi-solid mass in the receiver which became solid and crystalline upon cooling and standing. This material distilled in the range 250 to 300 F. at 0.5 mm. This material was predominantly the lactone of Example I having the empirical formula CaH12Os.

A portion of a lactone material produced as described immediately above, was placed in a glass flask with 5 per cent (based on weight of total reaction mixture) of a palladium-on-activated charcoal catalyst containing weight per cent palladium. The flask was attached to a condenser and receiver and the reaction mixture was maintained at a temperature of about 395 F. Some water distilled, and a trace of gas was produced. After two hours, the reaction mixture was cooled and dissolved in ethanol; the catalyst was removed by filtration. The ethanol solvent was removed by distillation and a residual product was obtained in a yield of about 60 per cent based on the lactone starting material. The product was a viscous oil, at reaction temperature, becoming glassy on cooling, and almost colorless. It possessed a characteristic odor resembling hyacinths.

Upon further examination the product composition was found to have a density, D25 of 1.152, a refractive index, N of 1.530, and to be soluble in alcohol, acetone, and 5 per cent aqueans sodium hydroxide. to be insoluble in water.

Example III Ten parts by weight of the product produced and recovered in accordance with the procedure of Example IIwas oxidized with 60 parts of poitassium permanganate in 200 volumes of water at C. Manganese dioxide produced during the oxidation was separated from the resulting oxidation reaction mixture. The reaction mixture thus free of manganese dioxide was acidifled and a quantity of white crystalline material was formed. This crystalline product was recrystallized from hot Water to produce crystals melting at 121-122 C. A melting point was taken on a mixture of the crystals thus produced with benzoic acid (melting point 121.7 C.) and no lower melting point was observed, thereby identifying the product as benzoic acid and establishing the structure of the product as one containing an aromatic ring with only oneside chain.

As will be evident to those skilled in the art, various modifications of this invention can be made, or followed, in the light of the foregoing disclosure and discussion, without departing from the spirit or scope of the disclosure or from the scope of the claims.

We claim:

l. A process for the conversion of a lactone prepared by theinterreaction of 1,3-butadiene with furfural and water and having the empirical formula C9H12O3, to a composition containing an aromatic ring and a single side chain, comprising contacting saidlactone with from 0.05 to 4.0 weight per cent palladium as a catalyst based on the total reaction mixture, at a temperature within the limits of 300 to 450 F. and for a reaction time within the limits of 0.5 to 5 hours, and recovering said composition as a product of the process.

2. A process for the conversion of a lactone prepared by the interreaction of 1,3-butadiene with furfural and water and having the empirical formula C9H1203 to a composition containing an aromatic ring and a single side chain, comprising contacting said lactone with from 5 to 20 per cent by weight of palladium-on-chaircoal as a catalyst based on the total reaction mixture, at a temperature within the limits of 300 to 450 F. and for a reaction time within the limits of 0.5 to 5 hours, said palladium-on-charcoal containing from 1 to 20 per cent by weight palladium, and recovering said composition as a product of the process.

3. A process for the manufacture of a composition containing an aromatic ring and a single side chain, comprising introducing butadiene, water, and furfural into a reaction zone to provide a resulting admixture containing from 3 to 50 per cent butadiene and from 1 to 30 per cent water based on the weight of furfural, maintaining the resulting admixture at a temperature within the limits of 160 and 325 F., for a period of from 5 to hours, recovering a product fraction from the resulting reaction mixture containing a lactone having an empirical formula C9H12O3, contacting the resulting lactone-containing fraction with from 5 to 20 per cent palladium-on-activated charcoal as a catalyst based on the weight of the total reaction mixture, at a temperature within the limits of 300 to 450 F. and for a reaction time within the limits of 0.5 to 5 hours, said palladium-on-charcoal contain- The product was found tngifiomzt toffld-iperwent byiweight bflpailadium, and recovering said composition ias'aproduet, of the process.

4. A composition containing an aromatic ring and :a single side chain and cha-rac'terized lay a density, D25 of "-152 and #a refractive index, N9 2011.530, and :being :soluble in sethanoLilacetone and aqueous alkali.

5. A process for the utilization of a lay-product material from an extractive distillation -=-proeess in) wherein f ur fura l is employed as a, selectiwe-solvent under non'anhyd-rous:-conditions in the separation of butadiene from a butadiene-"outene hydrocarbon mixture, in the manuiac'tur e of a composition containing an aromatic ring and a single side -ehain, comprising diverting a side stream of furfural cfrom such'an extraetive d istillation system toa furfur-al purification system and "therein separating furiuralof high purity and a tarry residual byproduct formed as an impurity during said extractive distillation; vae- 'uum'distflling-said tarry residueand separating a residual tar product and an overhead product containing a la'ctone characterized lay the em- 'piri'cal formula -'-C91-I 1'z03, contacting the resulting lactone-containing fraction with palladium as a icatalystiand' present in a i proportion- 055 from 0.05120 .0. per cent by weight basedon the resulting reaction mixture, at a temperature Within the range of from 300 to 450 F., and-i ora-contact time within-the limits of 0.5 to- 5 hours, and recover-ingsaid composition as a product ofthe process. 7

6-. A process for the utilization of a by-product material from an extractive distillation process wherein furfuralis employed as a selective solvent under non-anhydrous conditions in the separation of butadiene from a butadiene-butene hydrocarbon mixture, in the manufacture of a composition containing a-naromatic ring and a single side chain, comprising removing water from a steam condensate, formed during the steam distillation of furfural previously-utilized as a solvent in .such anextractive I distillation, separating from a resulting residual steam condensate a light fraction containing a lactone having the empiriCaI 'fQrmula "Cd-T1203, contacting the re sultm'g lactone containing fractiomwith .palla dium :as a 'catalystean'd present in a proportion of' from 0105150 4.0 per cent byweight' based onthe total reaction-' mixture, ate; "temperature within :the'rangebi fr0m'300' to450 F."and'-for a contaotftime 'within the'ilimits of'0'.5"to 5 hourspand recovering said composition as a :product of the process.

"7. A pro'ce'ss for"the manufacture-of'a composition c'ontaining an aromatic ring "and a single side chain, comprising admixing a lactone-oon taming iiraction described hereafter with from "0105 430 weight per "cent p'alladium as a catalyst based on the-total reaction mixture, maintaining the resulting admixture "are, temperature' within the limits-of BOO and 450 FJior a per-iodwithin 'the limits of 0. 5 and5- hours, and recovering. said composition as a product of the process'; said lactorie cor'itaining fraction having a boiling range Within "the limits "of 250 --and 300 F. measured at an absolute pressure of 0.5 mmuI-Ig. and obtained as a product of condensation 'of butadiene, water, and furfural'at a temperature Withinthe limits or and 325 F. for aperiod of from 5 tol'25-hour's.

JOHN C. HILLYER. JAMES T. EDMONDS.

REFERENCES CITED The-fo'llowing references are "of "record in the file of l'Tfi S atent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS OTHER. REF

Dunlap ll'idi8t -Engt Chm V01. 40, pp. 204

' 'Fisehe-r-'etal,,Beilstein (Handbuch, 4th ed.) vol.

-7,pp. 304-305 1925). Franke 'et a1., Beilst'ein ('Handbuch, 4th ed-.;

2nd Supp L) vol. 7,'p.- 236 (1948) 

1. A PROCESS FOR THE CONVERSION OF A LACTONE PREPARED BY THE INTERREACTION OF 1,3-BUTADIENE WITH FURFURAL AND WATER AND HAVING THE EMPIRICAL FORMULA C9H12O3, TO A COMPOSITION CONTAINING AN AROMATIC RING AND A SINGLE SIDE CHAIN, COMPRISING CONTACTING SAID LACTONE WITH FORM 0.05 TO 4.0 WEIGHT PER CENT PALLADIUM AS A CATALYST BASED ON THE TOTAL REACTION MIXTURE, AT A TEMPERATURE WITHIN THE LIMITS OF 300 TO 450* F. AND FOR A REACTION TIME WITHIN THE LIMITS OF 0.5 TO 5 HOURS, AND RECOVERING SAID COMPOSITION AS A PRODUCT OF THE PROCESS.
 4. A COMPOSITION CONTAINING AN AROMATIC RING AND A SINGLE SIDE CHAIN AND CHARACTERIZED BY A DENSITY, D2525, OF 1.152 AND A REFRACTIVE INDEX, ND24, OF 1.530, AND BEING SOLUBLE IN ETHANOL, ACETONE AND AQUEOUS ALKALI. 